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Wetlands/American Land Title Association/National Society of Professional Surveyors: New Minimum Standards Described in Publication Field Notes

Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc.’s publication Field Notes has a May 20th article titled New Minimum Standards for Depicting Delineated Wetlands on ALTA/NSPS Land Title Surveys (“Article”). See Vol. 24, No. 7.

The Article notes that the American Land Title Association and the National Society of Professional Surveyors have published “Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for ALTA/NSPS Land Title Surveyors” (“New Standards”).

The New Standards have an effective date of February 23, 2016 and include a revision to Table A, Optional Survey Responsibilities and Specifications, which address the location of delineated wetlands.

By way of background, the Field Notes article notes that:

In the expired minimum standards which took effect February 23, 2011, Table A – Item 19 required the “location of wetland areas as delineated by appropriate authorities,” if requested by the client. Although the intent of the committee charged with writing the standards was that the Surveyor simply locate any wetland delineation marks set by qualified persons, that intent was not clear from the wording. The requirement has been interpreted as requiring the Surveyor to review the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Wetlands Inventory Maps and use the information from those maps to satisfy the requirements of Item 19. However, since those maps are known to not capture many wetland areas, reliance upon them may be misleading.

In describing the new standards, the Field Notes article states:

The new requirements, effective February 23, 2016, have been clarified in Table A, Item 18. The new item states “If there has been a field delineation of wetlands conducted by a qualified specialist hired by the client, the Surveyor shall locate any delineation markers observed in the process of conducting the fieldwork and show them on the face of the plat or map. If no markers were observed, the Surveyor shall so state.

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